How the Types of Flour Influence the Moist, Rise, and Elasticity

of Banana Bread’s Outcome

Saige Fogarty and Jalynn Nicoly

Abstract
In any food recipe, each ingredient plays an important role in changing the flavor and sometimes
the ability to keep the structure together. Our goal in this project was to see how using different
flours affect the elasticity, moistness, and how much the loaves of bread rose within our banana
bread. One banana bread was made with all-purpose flour, the second was made with bread
flour, and the third was baked with coconut flour. Other than the different flours used, it was
appropriate to keep all of the other ingredients the same. We are aware that it is common to see a
different amount of another ingredient used due to the flour choice. By experimenting on the
different loaves of bread, each test took on either a qualitative or quantitative approach. The end
results came out to show each bread being successful in a test. The all-purpose bread rose the
most, the coconut flour bread had been the moistest, and the bread flour bread had been the most
elasticity. What this means for you, as the reader, is that the type of flour you will want to use
completely depends on personal opinion. Specifically, the all-purpose flour bread will be more
visually appealing. Whereas the bread flour will look decent and be the chewiest. The coconut
flour, we learned, will not stay together but is considered the moistest.

Key Terms: ​Banana Bread, Bread Flour, All-Purpose Flour, Coconut Flour, Moist, Elasticity,
Rise, and Quantitative

Introduction a denser bread then expected. Because

The purpose of this experiment was to
understand how gluten affects the overall
outcome within banana bread by changing
the type of flour used. All of the flours
contain a concentration of the protein gluten.
Gluten is a key influence on why banana
bread produces what it does. Gluten is the
most important protein group in bread
making. Gluten usually forms when water is
added and mixed with the flour. If you don't
have gluten in your bread, it loses gas
bubbles that form in the dough and produces
gluten also allows the dough to maintain its
shape, the removal of gluten can also result
in having an unsteady shape
Coconut flour is naturally gluten-free, bread
flour containing approximately 12-14%
gluten by mass, whereas all-purpose flour
contains 12%. This brings us to the
hypothesis, that the coconut flour banana
bread will hold the least stable shape.
More directed at the experiments, protein
ties in with shaping the bread by supporting
the structure. This also results in a higher
rise. All-purpose flour holds around 10.5%
protein compared to bread flour containing
between 12% to 12.7% of protein. Here, we
think that the bread flour will create the best
rise due to how much protein it contains.
Ingredients
1 Egg
2 to 3 ripe mashed bananas
⅓ Teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
¾ Cup of sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ Cups of flour
Making the Batter
For our experiment, we were changing the
different types of flour being used to make
our banana bread. We did create a trial that
was produced with the original recipe using
all-purpose flour. Our purpose was to see
how the elasticity, moistness, and the
amount it rose, would differ between three
different types of flour.
When cooking it is always good to take
some different precaution measures, because
one you are dealing with the hot oven and
hot pans. When dealing with hot pans it is
always safe to wear oven mitts, but also
being aware of your different surrounding
such as when using the measuring tools with
multiple items. Even when you are using
eggs it is always good to use the egg then
throw it away instead of leaving it on the
counter for dogs to possibly eat. Overall, it
is just good to be cautious of your
surrounding when cooking and make sure
you have a clean area too.
The first step was to gather all the materials
we had from both of us and categorizes each
ingredient that each of us had. lace all of the
ingredients out so you can have easier
access while making the dough. To start the
process of baking the bread preheat the oven
to 350 F.
Methods
After we produced our three different types
of banana bread, we put them to the test to
determine how the flours affected the rise,
elasticity, and moistness of the bread.
Test Number One - Rise
The rise, being quantitative, was relatively
easy to measure. The process looks like
holding a rule (that measures down to the
millimeters) next to the highest point of the
bread. The highest point is normally found
centered due to the shape that the bread
possesses. To attempt to be more accurate
with our visual measurement, it was
confirmed by three people and a photo was
captured. The difficulty here was viewing
the photo straight on so that the shown
measurement was the correct one. The photo
may be critiqued but let’s recognize that
there were multiple people who could agree
on the same amount. This design was chosen
for this test due to the simple reason of not
having the equipment to conduct a different
method.
Test Number Two - Moist

The following test was to determine which
bread could be considered the moistest.
There were two ways my partner and I could
have experimented this. One way was the
qualitative method by simply asking peers to
taste test and express to us in a survey how
they felt about the bread. The other method
and the chosen method was to discover
ourselves by testing the moistness using
quantitative research and letting the bread
dry out for 12 hours. The time was limited to
12 hours due to the concern of mold, the
moister the bread is, the faster mold can
occur. What occurs first was to take half of
the baked banana bread and weigh it. Once
weighed it was appropriate to cut the banana
bread into slices so the bread was able to dry
out faster.
Test Number Three - Elasticity
The final test covers the elasticity of the
final pieces of banana bread. To do this, we
were to place a weight on top of the bread
and measure how much it has been
compressed. Each piece of bread will be of
different size due to the different types of
flours we had used. This is where we need to
note how because the coconut flour bread
came out crumbly, the best option was to
take the largest piece and use this.
The first step when going through the
process of finding elasticity is to determine
what the stress is.
Stress = Force/Area*
*The surface area of the face facing
downwards
For each remaining half loaf of bread, they
were cut into cubes to be easily measured
for area and compression. For each cube, the
length, width, and height were measured to
determine the original thickness (the height),
and the surface area of the side facing down.
Once measured, the next step was to place a
heavy object on top of the banana bread.
While the object balanced on top, a photo
was taken, and an agreed measurement was
fixed on. This measurement is now the
compressed thickness. With this, we can
now determine the strain.
Strain = ⃤ Thickness/Original Thickness
Overall, with strain and stress determined,
the elasticity can be found using the
equation below.
Elasticity = Stress/Strain
Results
Drawn from the methods, we were able to
observe how each type of flour could
contribute to the physical features of the
banana bread. This includes the rise,
elasticity, and how moist it turned out.
Below you will see the results from all three
tests.
Rise Results:

The banana bread that produced the most
rise was, in fact, the all-purpose flour bread.
It’s important to acknowledge that because
the coconut flour banana bread came out
broken, it wasn’t possible to know the full
height.
Moist Results:
After the drying process took place, it was
clear that the coconut flour banana bread
contained the moistest by looking at the
percentage of decrease. This is due to how
much lighter the bread resulted after 12
hours compared to the other two loaves of
bread.
Elasticity Results:
Looking at the very bottom row, the bread
flour banana bread did come out as the most
elastic. This was to be predicted, for the
bread flour holds the most gluten, and it is
known from the earlier mention that gluten
and elasticity tend to come hand and hand.
Discussion
When proceeding with our methods, minor
errors occurred that could affect the
accuracy of our results. There were also
concerns and things we wish had taken place
during the experiment.
What this can look like is a concern in moist
testing, how we had to be aware of the fact
that if the bread were to sit out too long it
would mold. Molding is described as the
meeting between bread and mold spores that
float in the air, once settled mold will begin
to grow. The moister the bread, the faster the
mold will grow. Therefore, time was limited
to 12 hours.
Also in the moist testing, it occurred to us
that the bread should have been cut into
similar size slices, held within the same size
open containers, to keep the situation almost
identical.
It may have been noticed how in the rising
test, the coconut bread was significantly
shorter than the other two. This is due to
how the coconut flour bread came out
crumbly, a key physical feature. It should
also be noticed that this has impacted every
test. Within the moist test, it was impossible
to have the coconut bread sliced due to its
features. Our beginning hypothesis states
that the coconut flour will be found as the
least stable, and our results do now match
this. Although it was also referenced that
bread flour would hold the larger rise when
in fact, the all-purpose flour did.
With the elasticity trial, the small piece was
incapable of holding the weight of the force
like the other two were capable of. This
forced a fast reaction of measurement
accuracy. The size of the compressed
coconut bread was also recognizably smaller
just by viewing the stress and strain
measurements.
The rise of the banana bread is more for the
overall appearance and how it makes for
better presentation. So when it comes down
to pleasing guest, the best option would be
to follow through with the all-purpose flour.
Elasticity may seem odd to a reader as of
right now, but the elasticity of your banana
bread largely impacts what the chewiness.
When making the bread, if you decide that
you want your bread chewy and easy to bite
into, we recommend the bread flour. It
should be kept in mind that we simply prefer
bread flour rather than all-purpose and
coconut, and not to all flours.

Conclusion
When baking you commonly want your food
item to come out well-made and in the shape
of the tray or pan that you want it to stand.
You would think that buying trays/pans (that
hold dough) would stay that shape.

In this case, our coconut flour banana bread

wasn't sticking together. But we got to see
that when our bread came out of the oven
that the flour was not rising and was creating
a flat top on the bread. We also got to see
that the bread wasn't holding shape when we
took it out of the pan. However, we did learn
that using coconut flour to make banana
bread is not going to work for making bread.
This isn’t really a big problem in the baking
world, but it did give us a chance to
experiment with coconut flour. From this
project, we learned that you won’t really
have banana bread if you use coconut flour.